With More Clean Energy on our Grid, Dirty Energy is Evolving too

As with any niche in nature, in which ecosystems must adapt with competition from a new species, the traditional electric power sector is changing and evolving as more renewable energy is added. For the first hundred years of electric power, coal dominated the field. Hydropower and geothermal power did not alter the power “ecosystem” in any way, since they provided the same kind of baseload energy as coal did (provided that the coal railcars delivered their loads every twelve hours to stoke each new shift of steam-making coal fire, of course). But with the recent addition of fuel-free renewable power from wind and solar, the energy grid has the potential for highs and lows that are more unpredictable. When clean wind power is generating an excess, dirty coal plants must now be shut down (in many states) in favor of power from the electricity source with lower greenhouse ga...